DEGREES OF ABSTRACTION
I think of abstract painting as music for the eyes. Just like music, it doesn’t depict any objects or events directly. But both of these art forms are highly expressive, and are very effective at communicating thoughts and feelings too deep and subtle for words alone to capture.

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ELEMENTS OF THE EARTH
Although my paintings are abstract, they are stamped with my love of wilderness. I grew up in rural Pembrokeshire and on the east coast of Australia, both ancient landscapes, and perhaps for that reason my aesthetic tastes are resolutely anti-urban. The gnarled oaks and mossy bluestone of westernmost Wales, the shaggy eucalypt forests and massive granite boulders of easternmost Australia, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts—above all, it is the superabundant messiness of wild natural forms, large and small, that inspires the forms I paint. Nature strikes a perfect balance between order and disorder, which I try to replicate in all my works.

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ECHOES OF THE PAST
For me, the impetus to paint comes from immersion not only in nature but also in the history of art and ideas in all its forms. Historically all the arts have intermingled in a way that amplifies their meaningfulness, all building on the same traditional themes and preoccupations. My painting is a way of responding and contributing to this nexus of meaning. Usually my paintings refer to specific poems of pieces of music, like abstract illustrations or visual songs.